Coal Chamber, SOiL, The Defiled & Dope- O2 ABC Glasgow (24/5/15)

Most of the gigs I’ve been to recently have been either unplanned or because I wanted to see the band that was playing. Tonight was one of the unplanned ones, due to Mosh being ill. This meant that I had the opportunity to go to this rather interesting show.

First up on the stage was Dope. Having never heard of them before, I was intrigued as to how they would fare with the crowd. It’s safe to say they went down rather well with a good number of the crowd that were there. Playing to about a half full ABC, the band gave a good performance with the bassist jumping here, there and everywhere throughout the set. It’s worth noting that this was the first time they had ever played Glasgow, which I was surprised at given how the crowd responded to them. Whilst their music was not to my taste, there was no denying that the band was giving their all and will probably return to the UK soon.

Next up was The Defiled. Being hailed by Metal Hammer as “One of the Leaders in the new wave of British metal” I had high hopes for them. Playing what can only be described as modern metal with synth keyboards backing, they certainly had quite a number of fans amongst the crowd. The reception to them was mixed, a number of people in the audience were really into them, a few were nodding their heads and then there were those, like me, who were a little unimpressed with them. I feel as though they gave a good performance, but I just couldn’t get into them. No offence to them, but they’re just not my cup of tea.

The stage then played host to a band I’ve been wanting to see for a long time. SOiL. Having had the opportunity to chat to Adam (Guitar and Backing Vocals) I was suitably excited to see them play. Playing to a now suitably full ABC, the band delivered a vaired set with songs spanning across their releases. For the song “Halo”, Ryan (Vocals) decided to come into the centre of the crowd and sing it with the crowd. This resulted in some quite funny screams every now and again from suitably excited audience members. The only complaint I have about their set, was that it was too short. I hope that they come back on a headlining tour soon so they can have the full set time they deserve.

Onto the headliners of the night, Coal Chamber. It’s safe to say that the crowd was pretty excited to see them, with suitably thunderous roars occurring when the band came on stage and at the end of each song. Having spoken Nadja (Bass) with earlier, she mentioned that given the new album was not out in Europe yet, they were only playing 2 songs from it and the rest from their back catalogue. Playing to a now packed ABC, the band delivered a supremely good set with hardly any stops at all. About half way through the set, Dez (Vocals) took a few minutes to thank everyone that had come out to see them and said he suitably impressed that so many people had come out on a Sunday. In fairness I was too, I’ve not seen that many people at gigs recently, let alone on Sundays. Maybe it’s just the time of year, of the fact that the gigs I’ve been going to have been an acquired taste. Either way, the crowd was going suitably insane with loads of stage divers and people jumping around and the band played off this energy giving their all and playing almost non stop.

Whilst I’d only really heard of and listened to one of the bands that played tonight, it’s safe to say that I will be checking out some of them in the future. In short, this was a good gig with some great performances from all the bands.